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Open Innovation Magazine

In this issue:Data-Driven Leadership: A Conversation with Governor Martin O'Malley, Encourage Open Data with a System That Doesn't Discourage Openness, Where's the ROI? Demonstrating the ROI of Your Open Data Initiative, Data-Driven Disaster Management: A New Era

Introducing the Open Data Network™

Connecting Communities to Change the World

What Is It?

The Open Data Network brings together a vast ecosystem of participants, including government data publishers, businesses that use open data, developers who build data services, and citizens who benefit from data services. The Open Data Network™ takes an industry-specific approach to streamline access and syndicate open data. Socrata, its customers, and its partners will pioneer the network effects of open data.

Why Now?

Open data is rapidly evolving. Before, it consisted of digital catalogs that displayed and visualized raw data. It now includes an ecosystem of apps and services aimed at engaging citizens, improving lives, and helping people make smarter decisions. The Open Data Network is the next phase of this continuum, making it easier than ever to create connected communities through supported data standards.

Benefits of Participation

Joining the Open Data Network offers three dimensions of benefit. Standardized data distribution helps improve the public sector’s access to its own data, enhancing operational efficiency and data-driven decision-making. It provides developers with valuable resources to engage in new business opportunities and stimulate job creation. It also drives critical data into the daily lives and activities of citizens.

About the Network

Governments & Partners

The Open Data Network brings together a host of government customers and industry partners, each group participating in its own way. Initial customers included the cities of San Francisco, Dallas, and Kansas City (MO). Inaugural partners included Zillow®, SiteCompli, Civic Insight, Appallicious, BasicGov, Ontodia, DRiVEdecisions, and Buildingeye. Ultimately, the Open Data Network will encompass other industries and include participation from other governments, companies, developers, and citizens.

Apps Developers

A growing number of entrepreneurs create businesses and products based on government data. Some repurpose it into web and mobile apps that make the data more useful and accessible for everyday citizens. Others integrate data into their daily operations, like material suppliers who use building permit apps to identify new customers. The Open Data Network nurtures this growing ecosystem by engaging with developers and optimizing data for their use.

Data as a Service

Now more than ever, consumers want to make informed decisions. To do this, they increasingly turn to data apps and platforms. The Open Data Network will address over thirty key data areas to improve these tools, starting with housing and expanding into other industries over time. People often research property history when looking for a home. Through the Open Data Network, housing-related government data easily feeds into the services people use, helping them to make informed decisions.

Network Connectors

An average person can use hundreds of web services every day. Incorporating data from a variety of sources makes platforms like Yelp, ESRI, and others even more valuable and helps them to improve their services. Offering high-value data in useful formats enables that data to achieve its full potential. That’s why the Open Data Network invests in connectors—to bring together some of the world’s leading data platforms and provide added value to billions of users worldwide.

Network Connectors

Yelp L.I.V.E.S.

locationWhen Yelp saw Socrata customers publishing restaurant health inspection data on open data portals it recognized a way to improve its restaurant reviews. The two companies decided to work together, along with non-profit Code for America, to make those inspection results appear on Yelp. Called Local Inspector Value-Entry Specification (L.I.V.E.S), the public health data program is spreading from San Francisco and New York to Los Angeles and other major cities.

“While ratings and reviews are incredibly powerful ways to guide spending decisions, we’re always looking for new ways to supplement the information to provide a better experience for consumers.”

Jeremy Stoppleman, CEO of Yelp

MS Office 365™

databaseSocrata worked with Microsoft to extend public data into Microsoft Excel®, one of the world’s most common data management tools. The Socrata Open Data Connector for Microsoft Office 365 supports the Open Data Protocol (OData), an open standard for accessing data over the web. Integrating with Power Query and Power BI for Office 365, the connector enables you to access public datasets from within Excel and keep them in sync as data changes. Watch a Demo ►

“We’re excited to be working with Socrata, and what it means for advancing the global open data movement and increasing speed to insight for governments making critical decisions.”

Laura Ipsen, Corporate VP of Microsoft Worldwide Public Sector

Esri Connector

earthEsri is the leading, international supplier of Geographic Information System (GIS) software, web GIS, and geodatabase management applications. The Socrata team has done the work to ensure that any data from Esri that you want to upload to your portal enters easily, with a minimal number of steps. The goal is to have the data as close to its source state as possible.